Tuesday, March 25, 2014

I want to thank you so much for taking the time to write me. Nothing is more gratifying to a writer than knowing that his message is being received.
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As I read your email I couldn't help but think how much you remind me of myself. When I was younger I too felt misunderstood. Then as I got older I began to understand the reason why - because I WAS misunderstood. Fortunately, I had been cursed with the blessing of functional intelligence, just as you clearly are, but unfortunately, gross ignorance is the coin of America's realm. The powers that be have a vested interest in promoting stupidity as cute in this country, and we are bombarded with that message from the time we open our eyes in the morning, until the time we close them at night.
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How many times have you seen the image of the young intellectual portrayed as a Steve-Urkel-type character to be ridiculed, while the dim-witted captain of the football team is portrayed as a lady-killing macho man to be admired? Then think about John Wayne. I don’t know what John was really like in life, but the character that he portrayed was undoubtedly one of the biggest dummies who ever rode across the Texas plains. Yet, he's presented as the quintessential American male. There's a good reason for that - because a nation filled with citizens who worship ignorance is much easier to control. So whenever there's a person with your level of intelligence who can see through the mass manipulation of the people, the very people who you are trying to enlighten will bring tremendous group pressure down on you to shut you up.
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It’s a simple matter of cognitive dissonance. In most cases your peers know you’re right, but they have so much invested in forging their images to conform to what’s defined as "impressive" by the status quo, that to admit you’re right, is also to admit that they’ve been hoodwinked and manipulated. It also suggests that they need to rethink who they are from the ground up, and that’s unacceptable to most people. So the misguided are content to simply play-out the role that they’ve been assigned by society, and they have no interest in a person like yourself revealing the fact that they’re allowing themselves to be played like idiots.
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But as bad as that is for society as a whole, the pressure to remain ignorant is even more pronounced in the Black community. Within our community we are held to what amounts to a moral obligation to be stupid in order to maintain our credibility as loyal to the Black race. Think about that. It’s not only unbelievable, but it virtually ensures a self-perpetuating mode of behavior, and view of life, that’s certain to keep us at the very bottom of society.
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Our attitude comes from our experience under slavery. During slavery the only Black people that the average field slave knew who spoke anything close to proper English was the house slave, and many house slaves tended to look down upon those who worked in the fields. So Black people came to associate other Black people who spoke proper English, or who they perceived to have knowledge and intelligence, with Uncle Tomism, or as "trying to be White." In addition, that also created a mind-set that led to the syllogistic conclusion that knowledge was the White man's domain.
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That's why you have young hip hoppers walking around purposely trying to destroy the English language by saying things like, "What it be like?" - because they see ignorance as cool, and a defining characteristic of what it means to be Black - and many of these young people are brilliant, but they’d die before they’d let that get out into the world. As a result, the very quality that’s required for the Black community to move forward, we’re trying our best to stifle. These are the issues that our so-call Black intellectuals should be addressing, instead of constantly chasing television sound bytes in an attempt to profit from our misery.
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The irony of ironies is, we’re currently living under a system of Urkel’s revenge. The Steve Urkels of yesterday have now morphed into the Iceberg Slims of today, because it’s the Steve Urkels of yesterday who are now controlling Wall Street and pimping us - and the macho captains of the various football teams are now their chauffeurs. So, yet, once again, Urkel has proven that knowledge is power. Ignorance is only bliss until reality sets in.
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So Richard, a young brother like yourself, who is fortunate enough to have the innate intelligence to see through this, have the closest thing to a moral obligation to combat this kind of ignorance. But you don't have to run your head up against a brick wall, or face the ire and condemnation of your peers to address this situation. Simply use your intelligence, class, and behavior, to find ways to send the message that knowledge is cool. Become the kind of Black man that if a bigot points at you and tell his young son, "that’s a nigga," his son will look at you, and then look back at his dad and say, "Daddy, I want to be a nigga when I grow up."
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I noticed that you're a very good writer. That’s one area in our community where knowledge and intelligence is tolerated. Since writers appear in newspapers, magazines, and in the electronic media, we’re looked upon much like artists, or ‘blingless’ celebrities of a sort, so we’re given a pass. So take the time to hone that skill. You can not only help the community by helping to educate our people, but you can also gain both notoriety and independence if you become good at it, and I’m sure you will.
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And, continue your education at all cost, but don't wait for the schools to educate you. Obtaining a receipt from a university is very important; it adds to your credibility. But knowledge is free, and in the final analysis, the only one who can educate you is yourself. So begin right now, and start educating yourself, because once knowledge is obtained, it doesn’t matter where it came from, and your water is just as wet as the water at Harvard. Some of the greatest minds I've ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, and they are directly responsible for whatever I said that captured your imagination.
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In that regard, the internet is a repository of all of man's collective knowledge, so use it to explore those areas of knowledge that interest you as an individual, because you are unique. No one alive, or no one who has ever lived, sees, or have seen, reality in exactly the same way that you do. So for all you know, you could be that one individual who can connect the dots like no one ever has before.
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Finally, I want to thank you again for taking the time to write me. I’m not getting rich doing what I do, so hearing from people like yourself makes it all worthwhile. So I want you to stay in touch, and let me know what you’re doing. I want to see where you go with this. If I've helped to create a monster, I want to know about it. Because while I’m not a very religious person, there’s much wisdom in religion, and as my grandmother used to say, "God works in mysterious ways." So for all I know, my birth, life, and everything I’ve done up until this point in life, might just have been to prepare me to write one sentence that would ignite a passion in you, which would allow you to go out and save humanity. That’s the way life works. We must never forget, the chances are, some nameless person probably inspired Martin Luther King. Thus, you should never discount the fact that you may be one of those people who are destined for greatness, so always take your thoughts, and your view of reality, seriously.
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So keep this email, and reread it from time to time, and then, go out and give ‘em hell.
.Exploding the Myth: The Impact Of the Black Experience on This Black Manhttp://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/03/exploding-myth-impact-of-black.html

Sunday, March 23, 2014

A PUBLIC STATEMENT TO ALL THOSE WHO ASSUME I'VE BEEN WOUNDED AS A RESULT OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE:

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Exploding the Myth: The Impact Of the Black Experience on This Black Man

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Ocean-Kat, you said,

"I think you experienced discrimination as a black child in school and as a result you project those feelings onto most everything you see. Its a terrible thing that so many black children were made to feel stupid in school and terrible that prejudice still continues to this day. But you're a grown man with many accomplishments. Isn't it time you moved beyond that childhood discrimination.".Kat, you’re laboring under a grossly erroneous assumption here. Yes, I’ve felt anger and frustration over the stupidity of bigots. But I've NEVER felt any resentment or any other affects from the discriminatory traditions in this country other than a sense of profound superiority due to a lifelong recognition of the childishness and transparent insecurity from which bigotry stems. .You've speculated about the downside of the affects of the Black experience, but now let us look at the upside. Consider how reinforcing it must have been to my young ego to recognize that I was intellectually superior to everyone I met who engaged in discrimination and/or bigotry. And consider the practical side. I've spent my entire life having to outwit bigots. There's got to be some intellectual benefit from that, don't you think?. So I’m not the least bit bitter as a result of my background and experiences. On the contrary, I'm of the opinion that adversity has made me more, rather than less, so I wouldn't trade in my hood rat background to be the son of a billionaire, because it made me, me, and I'm convinced that most educated Black people of my generation feel that way - though, they might not let you know it.. I view the Black experience in America from the perspective of a detached human being observing the social interactions of an ant farm. While I don't like seeing people hurt or injured, every since childhood I have ALWAYS found the insecurity of bigots both fascination, and very instructive. It gives me an insight into people that I doubt you have. For example, I often observe (with great amusement) the lingering vestiges of cultural hubris here, among White people of good will, who would never consciously engage in bigotry or discrimination. Your naively erroneous assumption of how I think, and why, is a perfect example of that, and it’s laughable. You’ve been watching far too much television and/or reading too much pop psychology, my man.. There’s only one Wattree family in America. EVERYBODY with the last name Wattree is related to me. We immigrated to the United States from France, as an intact Black Family, during the time that the French abolitionists, Edouard Laboulaye, and sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, conceived and sculpted the Statue of Liberty (Did you know that Lady Liberty was a freed slave, and has broken shackles at her feet?).. When my family arrived and settled in Minden, Louisiana (after the civil war), my great, great, uncle, Richard Wattree, established the Wattree School to educate free Black people, and he was responsible for educating many of the heads of what subsequently became some of the most prominent Black families in the state of Louisiana (and since we are a one-of-a-kind family, that can be easily researched on the net; simply go to Google and enter "Wattree School"), and since that time the professionals in my family have been dedicated to the education of Black people in one way or another. My daughter, Kaiumeka Wattree-Jackson, is currently a human relations specialist for her alma mater and the regional vice president of a college and university employees’ union, and many other Wattrees are scattered across this country teaching everything from kindergarten children through high school; others are working in positions of university administration. My son is a senior special agent with the Department of Justice, dedicated to eradicating drugs and street crime in America’s inner cities. So your inane assumption of the way I view the world and reality is just that - inane, presumptuous, and simplistic.. My woman is a public person, so she used to hate it when I referred to myself in my writings as a hood rat. So I wrote her the poem attached to the end of this missive to explain exactly how I feel about my background. It may enlighten you just as it did her. Now, she not only understands, but she approves. You see, Barack Obama is not the aberration that many people think. People like myself, Barack Obama, and many others, are cultural hybrids, and as we continue to grow in numbers, character, and vision, we’re going to become something to be reckoned with in this country.

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Evolution is a wondrous thing, and adversity is nature's primary tool of effecting evolution. When man first appeared on Earth he as a necked ape. He wasn't as ferocious as the lion, as strong as the elephant, nor could he soar above danger like the eagle. He was completely vulnerable, much like the Black man has been in this country. But nature provided man with one weapon to address the adversity within his environment, the human mind. Now, as a result of the effective use of that weapon, man has developed the resources to slaughter the most ferocious lion, machines that can crush the strongest elephant, and vehicles that can easily soar far beyond the most determined eagle's domain. In fact, he's even left his home planet to explore other worlds. Well, I'm convinced that adversity is having the very same impact on many Black people.

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Blacks have become bi-cultural. Educated Black people have not only attained the educational knowledge that governs their environment, but they also have a specialized knowledge that was necessary to develop in order to survive the adversity of a hostile environment. Even as I write we can see it at work in Washington, D.C. If we look toward Washington, what we see appears to be one adult, Barack Obama, patiently dealing with a government filled with ranting, rave children, the GOP, engaged in a world-class tantrum.

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The American people intuitively had the good sense to keep Obama in place in the last election. Somehow they knew that he was exactly the right man, doing exactly the right job, at exactly the right time. And they were right, because President Obama is not governing this country based on the knowledge that he gained at Harvard. He's holding America together by utilizing the knowledge and insight that became necessary for him to attain and develop in order to survive the adversity of the Black experience in America, and that's extremely ironic.

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So Ocean-Kat, you can spare me your condescending and paternalistic hubris regarding my history of being born Black in America, because I've benefitted greatly from every second of it. In fact, I wish you were here. . The Hood Rat. I’m sure you know that I love you; You’re everything that I need. You fit the bill of all my desires, a perfect match for all of my dreams. You’re everything I’ve always craved, that luscious vision from across the tracks; that delicate flower, just beyond my grasp, and now here you are at last. * But what you ask is foreign to me; You need something that I'm not. You said, if I'd tweak my nature, just a bit, you’ll give everything you’ve got. * But that "tweak" you need is who I am; It's my essence, can't you see? You want to abolish the hood rat from my life, the very thing that makes me, me. * While a hood rat may seem trite to you, a hood rat’s what you see; So forget about what the other’s say -here’s what it means to me: * I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of Hell, yet, managed to survive, well educated and fully functional, when I came out the other side. * I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard, because knowledge, I found, was free; But Harvard can't teach the lessons I've learn -that knowledge is unique to me. * While they've heard the sounds of a mournful Trane, and Miles moaning in the night, not against the backdrop of hunger and pain, or injustice, hatred, and blight. * Yet, these are the things you want me to purge, and spurn the life I’ve led. Well, I’m sorry sweet thing, as much as I love you, the soul of a hood rat is my edge.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

.Ramona, you're listening to America's classical music. It's America's contribution to humanity, and one of the greatest art forms ever created by man. It's the ultimate in spontaneous creativity; as precise and intricate as mathematics, yet, provides a master musician with the freedom to explore the very depths of his or her emotional being - the depths of your emotional being. For that reason, since its creation and development, it's technical conventions have influenced the creation of music all over the world. Thus, even people who claim not to like jazz, owes jazz a debt of gratitude, because the chances are greater than not that the very musical conventions that touch their hearts most about the music of their choice, was developed and perfected by the geniuses of jazz within the smoke-filled caverns of long gone and obscure nightclubs.
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Ramona, You write with such eloquence, imagination, and insight, I'm surprised that you didn't know that, since Jazz is much like writing. In fact, I became a writer through the influence of jazz. The only difference between a great writer and a great jazz musician is jazz musicians write their essays in emotion rather than words. Look at how much better I can paint a portrait of my mother's ravishingly beautiful friend, Teresa, in music than I could ever have done in words:

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TIME PASSES BUT BEAUTY NEVER FADES

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I’d Like to Dedicate This to Teresa.

She was a Friend of My Mother’s,

And a Ravishing Latin Beauty -

The Most Beautiful Woman I’d Ever Seem.

She’d Be In her 80's Now,

And Young People Probably Pass her on The Street And

Think, "Little Old Lady," Without Ever Knowing . . .

But I Remember,

And "Cha Cha" Is Still A Ravishing Beauty

In My Mind’s Eye,And She'll Continue to DanceAs Long As I'm Alive.

So Dance On, Sweet Princess.Dance On . . ..

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﻿

Now here's the very same tune, but expressing a different emotion. This time it's expressing a sort of "in your face, I got this" kind of competent defiance. Jazz musicians love this mode, because it thumbs it's nose at society. It's sort of our way of telling society to "Take your Black inferiority theories and shove 'em" - and without saying a word.

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A big difference between jazz musicians and the vast majority of pop "artists" is that jazz musicians are renowned for being some of the greatest musicians in the world. They take great pride in that fact, so musical virtuosity plays a huge role in jazz. The musicians of the Bebop and Hard Bop eras understood from the outset that they weren’t going to get rich playing the music that they loved, so they sought to validate themselves through excellence.
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On the other hand, many of today’s young pop oriented musicians are in a hurry to learn their chromatic scale so they can run out and achieve wealth and fame - they figure they can learn to play in Gb Maj while they're on the road. Then they get out and play distorted chord progressions, add a thunderous beat and loud electronic distortion to camouflage their limitations, and label it as "The New Thang." Thereafter, they slap one another on the back as brilliant, and dismiss those of us who recognize it as the noise it is, as being "out of touch."
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So the bottom line is, many of the so-called musical "revolutionaries" of pop never took the time to learn what either music, and particularly jazz, is really about. Jazz is more than just another form of music, and it's not just fun-n-games. Jazz is a way of life. There’s a political component to it - a way of thinking that reflects a unique way of viewing reality. So jazz purists are not simply upset over a modified beat and the introduction of electronics, they're also upset over the caving in to mediocrity and the abandonment of the political principles and qualities that jazz represents.
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After all, one of the greatest contributions that jazz has made to the Black community is informing the world that we're not the frivolous and thoughtless people in which we'd previously been portrayed. The harmonic complexity of bebop served to bring the dazzling intellectual capacity of black people to the world stage. So naturally, jazz purist are both reluctant and hostile to going back to the people-pleasin' days of what is essentially a musical form of Steppin'-Fetchism.
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Jazz has traditionally been the cultural anthem of social revolutionaries - both Black and White - who are willing to fight the good fight. Thus, jazz purists resent the mongrelization and surrender of those principles in lieu of "Can we all just get along?" To them, that represents the selling of our principles. That's why the word "commercialism" is looked upon with such disdain by those of us who have come to be known as jazz purists. We're not merely fighting to defend our right to be snobs. We're fighting to defend excellence from sliding down the slippery slope of corporate profit and mediocrity; we're fighting for a way of life, and we're fighting a political battle against the dumbing down of America as a whole. Our fight is an essential part of our jazz tradition. It's expected of us, because that's what jazz is all about - pushing the envelop, and never caving in to convention.
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So you can’t just put a funky beat behind noise and call it jazz, because once you go frivolous, the spirit of jazz has been abandoned. While jazz does kick up it's heels on occasion, it's a very serious form of music that’s designed to appeal to the mind, not just the ass. For that reason, a logical and organized structure is essential to its character. Without that, and it’s arrogantly distinctive swagger, it's not jazz - Period.
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True jazz is a dead-serious form of music, performed by a dead-serious group of musicians. Any one of them, on any instrument, is capable of giving a master's seminar at any university or music conservatory in the world. So it's not at all surprising that many of us who are products of the jazz culture, and who understand the true meaning of jazz, become outraged at the spectacle of frivolous, rump-shaking imposters impersonating these great artists and our tradition.

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DEXTER GORDON

A Swingin' Affair I
Was told as a child
Blacks had no worth,
Not a nickel’s worth of dimes.
I believed that myth
‘Til Dex rode in
With his ax
In double time.

His
Horn was soarin’,
The changes flyin’,
His rhythm right on time;
My heart
Beat with the pleasure
Of new found pride,
Knowing,
His blood
Flowed through mine.

Dex
Took the chords
The keyboard played,
And danced around each note;
Then shuffled ‘em
Like a deck of cards,
And didn’t miss a stroke.

B minor 7 with flatted 5th,
A half diminished chord,
He substituted a lick in D,
Then really began to soar.

He tipped his hat
To Charlie Parker,
And quoted
Trane with Miles,
Then paid his homage to
Thelonious Monk,
In Charlie Rouse's style.

He took
A Scrapple From The Apple,
Then went to Billie’s Bounce,
The rhythm section, now on fire,
But he didn’t budge an ounce.

He just
Dug right in
To shuffle again,
This time
A Royal Flush,
Then lingered a bit
Behind the beat,
Still smokin’
But in no rush.

Then he
Doubled the time
Just like this rhyme,
In fluid 16th notes,
tellin’
Charlie and Lester,
"your baby boy, Dexter’s,
On top of the
Bebop you wrote.@

Wailin’
Like a banshee,
This prince of saxophone,
His ballads dripped of honey,
His Arpeggios were strong.

Callin’ on his idles,
Ghost of Pres’
Within in the isles,
Smiling at his protege,
At the peak of this new style.

His tenor
Drenched of Blackness,
And all the things we are--
Of pain, and pleasure,
And creative greatness
Until his final bar.
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.JACKIE McLEAN

JACKIE'S BAG
When Jackie McLean first appeared on the scene he swung it like nobody else; He stood all alone, with that bittersweet tone, owing nobody, only himself.
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With his furious attack he could take you back to the beauty of Yardbird’s song, but that solemn moan made it all his own, as burning passion flowed lush from his horn. Hearing “Love and Hate” made Jazz my fate, joyous anguish dripped blue from his song. He both smiled and cried and dug deep-down inside, until the innocence of my childhood was gone.
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He took me to a place that had no face, I was so young when I heard his sweet call, but he parted the fog and in no time at all, a child of bebop sprung fully enthralled. As I heard this new sound, and embraced the profound, childish eyes now saw as a man; I stood totally perplexed, but I couldn’t step back, from the hunger of my mind to expand.
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I saw Charlie and Lester, and a smiling young Dexter, as I peered into Jackie’s sweet horn; it was a place that I knew, though I’d never been to, but a place that I now call my home.
.

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SIR MILES DEWEY DAVIS

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MILES
. We knew him as Miles, the Black Prince of style,
his nature fit jazz to a tee. Laid back and cool,
a low threshold for fools, he set the tone
of what a jazzman should be.
*
Short on words, and unperturbed, about

what the people thought;
frozen in time, drenched in the sublime,
of the passion his sweet horn had wrought.
*
Solemn to the bone, distant and torn,
even Trane could scarcely get in;
I can still hear the tone of that genius who mourned,
that precious note that he couldn't

quite bend.

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Miles Davis and John Coltrane

.JOHN COLTRANE

THE MAN
Young and curious, crusin= the street, my partner and I, with life at our feet. Beautiful days of summer=s ilk, and beautiful ladies with legs of silk. Miles on the box with Thelonious in tow, playin’ "Round Midnite", with nothin= but soul. Miles was moanin=, Thelonious was Monk, our senses were spinnin=- our top in the trunk.
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Down Century Boulevard, past Sportsman Park, North on Crenshaw, Can=t wait til it=s dark. Crenshaw was jammin=, not like today, with cognitive people, who went their own way. Cadillacs gleamin=, prosperity galore, Ladies a struttin=, that gait I adore. The hood left behind, no denial or shame, among my kind of people, who=d mastered the game.
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Dreamin= and crusin=, yet, chained to the hood, but into an element we both understood. Jazz was the thing that had lured our route, and no chain of poverty was keepin= us out! Cause THE MAN was in town, with his mighty ax, and he was jammin= that night at Dynamite Jack=s.
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So anxious to worship THE MAN in the flesh, the first thing that mornin= we started to dress. In our youthful exuberance we saw nothin= wrong, with the hours to kill before HE would go on. Hence, there we were with nothin= to do, THE MAN=S first note at 9, and it was now only 2.
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So we went to a park on Rodeo Road and proceeded to get in our Mack-daddy mode. We needed two women with presence and class, who were progressive, and sexy, and dug modern jazz.
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We lucked-out, no doubt, with Debra and Gwen, two sisters on cruse in their step-father=s Benz. These women were ladies we soon recognized, not only quite lovely but exceedingly wise. We spoke of Dizzy, Dexter, Thelonious and Bird, and all of the monsters of jazz that we=d heard. Then just as our session was starting to end, Gwen mentioned Dolphy, and we were at it again.
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We partook of the bush, we had a few beers, by 8 it was like we=d been partyin= for years. But now it was time to hit Dynamite Jack=s, to hear THE MAN blow, sip Scotch and relax.
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So we followed the ladies up into the hills, to a fabulous pad, must=ve cost a few bills. We dropped off my car, then got in the wind. We split to see HIM, and my journey began.
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Dynamite Jack=s was the place to be, there seemed to be thousands of new things to see. Doctors, lawyers, pimps and Awhoes@, dope fiends with their nostrils froze; Perverts, politicians (one and the same), everyone seemed to have some kind of game.
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At 16 years old I was really impressed, with this flash, this glitz, this flamboyant success. I knew before long, that my turn would come, I=d shoot for the stars, at least, out of the slum.

Then HE came on stage to a mighty roar, as bustling humanity hung all out the door. A quiet MAN, of knowledge and taste, yet HIS presence sent a chill through the place!
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Then flash became silence, and glitz bled to awe. Pure greatness just glistened from THIS MAN we saw. No posturing, no swagger, no hipster-like Mack, Just unfettered greatness, the essence, in fact....
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On that one precious moment, as I gaped at the stand, my young reckless mind would take hold as a man. That moment estranged from the kid that I=d been. Life’s door was flung wide, and a new man would step in.
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Now, many years later, assessing my life, with the dues of raising two kids with a wife. THE MAN is long gone from this earthly plain, but HIS unflaunting manhood stays etched in my brain.
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A kid on that night gave birth to a plan, that night when I looked up in awe at THE MAN. Revealed was a path that would color my life, that shunned the flamboyance and glitz of the night. To shoot for the stars! That was my plan - the stardom that=s found in just being A MAN!
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I’ve taken two souls, and molded their lives, away from the flash, and the glitz, of the night. Two college age kids now view ME with awe. I now see in their eyes what that night HE saw.
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Greatness is relative, I learned from THE MAN, through the glint in HIS eye, and HIS demeanor on stand. You don’t have to be famous to be someone grand, just pull up your trousers, and stand tall like a man.
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It was KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM that night that I saw; the EXCELLENCE of DISCIPLINE that put awe in awe, of one humble spirit, so sweet and sublime, but a spirit that=ll speak to all man for all time!
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So a droplet of beauty, from this "kid" to mankind; a pearl of wisdom, a wistful rhyme; some insight he gained as he bat away tears; might his essence endure through the unfolding years?
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A journey began, on that faithful night, that moment a young set of eyes saw AFirst Light.@ When HE tapped out the rhythm to Africa Brass . . .
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and my dream to see COLTRANE had come true at last.
.EQUINOX
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.THE QUESTION
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Sometimes people ask me what do I consider myself first, a writer, or a musician. I tell them that it's all an extension of the same thing - my need to express what's going on inside of me. When I have an issue that I can express intellectually and support with facts, I write an essay. When I can't support the issue with factual evidence, I use poetry to express my feelings. But when I want to express an emotion that I can't put into words, like the pain of betrayal, or how my mother's friend, the beautiful Teresa, made me feel as a child when I looked upon her beauty and absolute perfection, I rely on music to express that emotion, and the only music that gives me all of the tools and necessary emotional hues to express the range of my emotions is jazz, because it mimics emotion.

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Jazz is especially designed to do that. It allows Black people to express their pain, anger, love, or sorrow to one another in a language that is nonverbal. It's the closest thing to communicating with one another through extrasensory perception as you can get - and even in the case of jazz singers, they use tone, emotion, and lyrical nuance to communicate a nonverbal message. If they can't do that, it doesn't matter how beautiful their voice, they will not be successful in jazz, because jazz is about feeling.

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.ROY HARGROVEA YOUNG LION: TRADITION VS. INNOVATION
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.CARRYING ON THE TRADITION

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Jazz is America's greatest contribution to the arts, but unfortunately, everyone seems to recognize that fact but America.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Attention Tea Party and Black Radicals: Either Fight as Allies, or Fall as Fools

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Retired army general, and FOX News analyst, Paul Vallely, is quoted as telling Arizona Tea Party Patriots, "I had a call this afternoon from Idaho. The gentleman said, ‘If I give you 250,000 Marines to go to Washington, will you lead them?’" Vallely said as the group laughed and gasped. "I said, ‘Yes, I will. I’ll surround the White House and I’ll surround the Capitol building, but it’s going to take physical presence to do things."

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POWER TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE

I'm just as angry and disgusted over what Black people have been forced to endure in this country as anyone else, but there are two reasons why I don’t spew bitterness. First, I can see beyond my anger, so I recognize that there are issues that are much more important than my right to vent that need to be considered, and one of the most important of those issues is - at least, in terms of the Black community - by constantly venting into the ears of our youth, we give young Black people a convenient excuse for failure. The fact is, some of us are lazy and less than ambitious anyway (just like many in every other group), so when young people are constantly bombarded with a message that says that the White man is evil, conniving, and intent on holding Black people down, it makes it much too easy for them to say, "Why even try? The White man ain't gon' let me move forward anyway." We don’t need that. On the contrary, we need to inspire our young people and instill a sense of confidence and determination in them. We are what we think, so the very last message that we want to send to our youth is one of impotence and defeat.
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The second reason that I don’t indulge in spewing anger is because it plays into the hands of the enemy. We’re currently knee-deep in a class war, and we’re facing an enemy who doesn’t care any more about poor and middle-class White folks than they do Black people. Yeah, they want to keep Black people down - at least, poor and middle-class Black people - but their ultimate mission is to undermine and subjugate ALL poor and middle-class people of EVERY race, creed and color. And keeping us divided is their most potent and effective weapon in doing just that. So when we’re constantly going around talking about the White man this, and the White man that, we're not only being ignored by those people (including some Blacks) who are actually trying to undermine us, but we're alienating White people who want to be, and should be, our allies in the struggle for universal justice. So why cut our own throats just for the satisfaction of venting our anger?
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The poor and middle class in this country have been under a brutal and growing assault for the past thirty-five years. It has been documented that Ronald Reagan flooded the inner cities with crack to support his illegal war in Nicaragua (in which we’re still suffering the ill affects, and he should have been both impeached and jailed for); our public educational system has been underfunded and under assault, leaving many of us incapable of accurately assessing our political environment; organized labor, the first line of defense for keeping the poor and middle class out of total destitution, has been all but decimated; and now, these malevolent forces are aiming at the middle-class safety net - programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance - which were initiated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to protect the poor and middle class from literal starvation during and after the Great Depression.
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So this is no time for the poor and middle class to be divided. It is essential that we ALL come together to protect our collective interests. If we don't, we’re all going to find ourselves enslaved under the yoke of corporate feudalism - and yes, it can happen here, and that reality looms closer than most people think. Actually, there’s a very strong possibility that it could be as close as one successful Republican election away, because the demographics are against the GOP, so they’re in a panic, and they’ve clearly demonstrated that they’re without limits. So if they ever manage to regain control of government, they’re not giving it up again - regardless to what they have to do.
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Retired army general, and FOX News analysis, Paul Vallely, is quoted as telling Arizona Tea Party Patriots, "I had a call this afternoon from Idaho. The gentleman said, ‘If I give you 250,000 Marines to go to Washington, will you lead them?’" Vallely said, as the group laughed and gasped. "I said, ‘Yes, I will. I’ll surround the White House and I’ll surround the Capitol building, but it’s going to take physical presence to do things" (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/27/fox-news-analyst-tells-tea-party-group-he-can-lead-a-military-coup-against-obama/).

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So it behooves poor and middle-class Black and White people to wake up, put our petty differences aside, and come together as a viable political force that’s ready to pitch a tooth-and-nail battle for the future of this nation. If we don’t, the Tea party and the Klan, the Black Guerilla Army, and the Mexican Mafia, are all going to find themselves shoulder-to-shoulder picking virtual cotton on the very same plantation.
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Ironically, many White people already recognize this fact - that’s why Barack Obama is President today. But due to our unique historic background, lack of formal education, the proliferation of urban legends disseminated by poverty pimps, and lingering bitterness, many Black people are resistant to this reality.
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While it is undeniable that some White people are dogs (just like some Black people), we now have undeniable evidence that MOST of them are good people who just want to live and let live in peace and harmony. If that were not the case, Obama wouldn’t have been elected president - twice. No, Obama’s election doesn’t mean that this is a post-racist society, but what it does say is, bigotry is being maintained and perpetuated by a minority of the White community.
.Consider this - even if they had allowed us to stay home, and they automatically posted the vote of every Black man, woman, and child in America for Obama, there still wouldn’t have been enough of us to elect him President of the United States. Black people are only 13.6 percent of the population. So if only one hundred votes were being cast to determine the presidency, and every group was given the number of votes that corresponded to their percentage of the population, Black people would only be given 14 votes. But in order for Obama to become president, he needed 51 votes. Where did those other 37 votes come from? I’ll tell you where they came from - many of them came from White people. Obama could never have been elected president without them. So that’s in direct conflict with the message that the majority of White people are racist bigots. Numbers don't lie, so while it may satisfy the anger of those who allege that to be the case, the numbers simply don't validate their claim.
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In addition, even during the Civil War, as brutal as this country was toward Black people, there were enough White men of good conscience around who decided to leave the love, advantage, and comfort of their homes and families to engage in the most brutal war that this country has EVER engaged in to free Black people from bondage - yes, there were other issues involved, but I’m not going to entertain a lot of nitpicking on this issue, because I see through it, just like I see through the racist arguments of White bigots.
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Well, maybe I'll address the most prominent argument - that this was not about slavery for these people; it was just a matter of citizens falling in step behind their government. The biggest obstacle to that argument is, we know that the Civil War involved much more than just a routine conflict between opposing government policies. The reason that we know it involved deeply felt, soul-searching, and moralistic passions, was because fathers were fighting sons. That fact alone speaks volumes. Personally, I can't even imagine a cause that I would be so passionate about that I would take up arms against my son. But these people did find such a cause.
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The bottom line is, the ultimate impact of these people's sacrifice brought slavery to an end. That’s a fact that cannot be denied. So when we run around talking about "THE White man's a racist dog," that not only implies, but specifically states, that ALL White men are racist dogs, which constitutes the very worst kind of profiling of, for my money, some of the finest and most selflessly courageous people who ever lived. Black people might STILL be on a plantation - YOU might still be on a plantation - if it were not for these morally courageous people. So by broad-brushing ALL White people it represents the thumbing of our noses at many people, and their families, who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. So to lump such people in with racist bigots, is the very height of ingratitude.
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Thus, as I see it, we who truly believe in justice, and not JUST-US, and are not just using the word "justice" as a pretext to spew garden variety racism, should be just as dedicated to ensuring justice for those who didn't just pay lip service to the concept, but who actually sacrificed their lives for the cause of justice. They had our back, so we should have theirs, and the backs of the descendants that they left behind.
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For that reason, I asked a very good friend of mine to focus on solutions rather than bitterness when posting to my Facebook wall, because when I say I believe in justice, I mean it. I seek justice not only for Black people, but for ALL people. Therefore, I’m not going to tolerate racism or bigotry of any kind on my wall - regardless to which direction it comes from - and I was very gratified to find that my friend understood that fact by indicating that we were on the same page, because there's a word for the concept of justice for some - hypocrisy - and it's poised to destroy us all, and this nation.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk at the Open Door Cafe, New York City in The Village, 1953

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Jackie McLean

Who are these cats, where did they come from,
and how did they become so mean?
The beauty of their lives must be sweet as honey,
and what have their oh-so-hip eyes seen?
Their lives must be a perpetual party, just jammin’ and caressing their horns,
and traveling around to exotic places that one day I’ll have gone.
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New York City, a town of glitz and glamor,
where the genius of Bird once spoke;
Full of beautiful women, and progressive brothers,
hanging on to my every note.
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The man is back! But this time around
he’s come back filtered through me,
so we’re hangin' around this time,
because I’m well into my prime
and I’ve made it a point to be free.
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We’ll avoid that monkey
who poured juice in Bird's horn,this time we’ll hold him at bay,
because noddin ain't blowin'
when the changes are flowin',
so it ain't no noddin' when playin'
my way.
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Bird was the man,
but I had an immediate demand
if he wanted to channel his licks through me;
I loved his sweet notes,
but that jones cut his throat,
so he'll settle for gin and juice
while in me.
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We’ll be jammin' all night, and sheddin' all day,

Sonny Stitt

and of course, we’ll leave a little time for some wooing;
We’ll sleep on Tuesdays between 10 and 2,
and then warm up for yet some more blowin’.
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Yeah, I know,
sleeping on Tuesday between 10 and 2
is a gross waste of our time,
but we can’t disappoint our lustful fans,
so we’ve got to keep my body primed.
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Just me and my horn, chasin’ that lick
that says, "Bird, Indeed, is back!"
But this time around we’re doing it my way,
and not stumblin’ upon stage while we're smacked.
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I thought
my dreams of Bird and Dexter Gordon
would only age like vintaged wine,
because it was based on the culture
of a vibrant people that would
last through the end of time.
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But now I awake to the poetic verse
of vulgar nursery Rhymes,
backed by the scratching of Miles Ahead
in something like 4/4 time.
Taking the time to learn music
is now considered by many
a gross waste of their time,
so if you want to take note of what
Thelonious once wrote ﻿
you have to go on the White side town.﻿﻿﻿

Dexter Gordon

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So it's sad to say, but we’re well on our way
to making a mark unique to this land,
by becoming the only culture
unable to perform - What We Created -
in the entire sojourn of man.
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Thus, I batted my eyes only to find
that I’ve awaken to another time;What was once so sweet
is now a nightmare to me,
and my sweet dream has past its sweet prime . . .?
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I don’t think so . . .
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So I limped on over to my old dusty case
and carefully withdrew my ax;
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Bird

Like an aging gunfighter,
you never forget, when something you love
is attacked.
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Having mastered other things, unlike at 16,
a little wisdom informs what I see.
I wasted my time chasing Dexter and Bird
instead of chasing the man I could be.
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I’ll never be Bird or Dexter Gordon,
that is now plain to see;
So the time has now come to see who I am,
because neither of them could be me.

Saturday, March 08, 2014

It’s Time to Deal in Facts: Black People Are Fools For the Democrats . . . Nonsense

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A Prominent Republican talking point - especially among Black conservatives - is that Black people are so unwavering in their support of the Democratic Party that they’re being taken for granted and not being given a fair return on their loyalty. That’s complete and utter nonsense.
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First, even if that were true, which it’s not, what alternative do Black people have? Let me answer that question. In a word, none. No Black person in his or her right mind should EVER consider giving any support whatsoever to the Republican Party, so the above argument is completely invalid. It makes no more sense to say that it’s in the Black community’s interest to use our vote as leverage to initiate competition between the Democratic and Republican Parties than to say that the Black community should leverage its support to stimulate competition between the Democratic Party and the Klan, or that Jewish people should divide their vote between ANY party and the Nazis. The argument is ridiculous on it’s face, and derived from an inane Republican talking point.
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The fact is, the Black community HAS no option other than to work within the Democratic Party, because to hold our votes hostage in any way would work to the advantage of the GOP, whose primary reason for existence is to drag Black people back into Jim Crow, and the poor and middle class of every race, creed, and color back into a Great Depression type of existence.
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The modern-day GOP is nothing less than the domestic enemy of the United States, and that’s not merely a partisan opinion (I’m not a Democrat), this is an easily researched fact. That’s what makes it so amazing that even a small minority of Black people buy into this ludicrous Republican talking point. The GOP’s behavior, and voting record, is a monument to conservative hostility toward the Black community. For that reason, whenever I’m confronted with this talking point by any Black person, I immediately write them off as either an idiot or a "bligot" (Black-on-Black bigot), and trying to educate people like these is like trying to teach a goldfish to ride a skateboard. It's a complete waste of time, Black people who hold this opinion either have a vested and self-serving interest in holding on to their position, or they lack the intellectual resources to be educated.
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With respect to the latter group, they would first have to be educated in the English language just to reach a point where they are capable of absorbing a political education. Even trying to educate them would be like trying to teach calculus to a person who hasn't mastered addition and subtraction. When a Black person declares him or herself a conservative, what they are actually saying is they are politically predisposed to "conserving," or PRESERVING, the American traditions of the past - hypocrisy, brutality, and racism toward his or her own people - and from my point of view, any Black person who can't understand the glaring stupidity of such a ridiculous position lacks the intellectual capacity to be educated - period.
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But as a direct result of the distorted view of reality of such people, after they declare their proud embrace of the conservative agenda, the very next sentence out of their mouths is invariably an attack on President Obama - that tends to be an obligatory salute to philosophical purity among conservatives. So let us set the record straight on that as well. President Obama is not only doing a tremendous job, but history is going to remember him as one of our greatest presidents - and no, I'm not just saying that because he's Black. I'm saying it because I'm lucid.
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Much of the criticism against Obama is a result of the ignorance and disinformation that's being allowed to spread as a result of it being politically inadvisable for him to toot his own horn. If ANY Republican had either captured or killed Osama Bin Laden they would be chiseling his head on Mt. Rushmore at this point, but it's being treated as a mere footnote in the Obama saga. And how many Americans know that President Obama has cut the national deficit to its lowest point since the Eisenhower administration? Not many, because information such as that is being kept on the down-low by his critics.
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"In 2009, the first year of Obama’s presidency, after tax cuts and new spending, the deficit was 10.1 percent of GDP. In 2012, the deficit declined to 7 percent of GDP. So that’s a decline of 3.1 percentage points. You have to go back 63 years to the period between 1946 and 1949 to find a bigger four-year drop than what the country saw between 2009 and 2012. Right after World War II ended, the U.S. deficit stood at 7.2 percent of GDP. By 1949, America had a surplus of 0.2 percent. So that’s a decline of 7.4 percentage points."http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jul/25/barack-obama/obama-says-deficit-falling-fastest-rate-60-years/
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And how many Americans know that President Obama forced over 60 Wall Street executives to cut their own salaries until they paid off their debt to the American taxpayer? As a direct result of President Obama's activity in this area the Wall Street debt to the American people has been nearly paid in full - and with interest. That doesn't sound like Cornel West's assertion that Obama was “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats” to me - and notice how in his slander of the president, West kept emphasizing the word "Black," twice in one sentence. He almost sounds like a closet Republican. And this from a man who said, "When you’re trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling get’s in the way. Name calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction." - Cornel West. Hmmmmm . . .
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Many of these people are critical of Obama because he’s not willing to throw his fist in the air and say, "I’m doing this or that for my people." But what they're failing to realize - and what goes a long way toward betraying the depth of their ignorance - is when Obama makes a decision he has to take many things into account, and precedent is not the least of those. As president he’s smart enough to understand that if he did throw his fist in the air and said, "This is what I’m going to do for Black people, he’ll set a precedent for the next White president to say, "Here’s what I’m going to do for White people," and they’d call it the Obama Doctrine.
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Thus, Obama has to make decisions that benefit Black people while addressing the concerns of the nation as a whole. He tried to send us a hint to that effect when he said, "I’m the president of ALL of the people," but some of us were too dim-witted to even understand what he was trying to tell us. In addition, his critics are also being hypocritical. Isn’t that what we fought for throughout the civil rights movement, a government that served ALL of the people equally?
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Equality is a double-edged sword that doesn’t always work to everyone’s advantage. That's why it's called equality. People MUST be treated EQUALLY, regardless to any elaborately conjured up pretext for special consideration. If we hadn’t been so shortsighted with Affirmative Action, and had designed it to be based on need rather than race, it would have been a much more effective program. It would have also had a lot fewer challenges, and it wouldn’t have brought down the civil rights movement. It was the perceived unfairness of Affirmative Action that ushered in the Ronald Reagan era, and thus, led directly to where we find ourselves today.
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It's essential that the Black community maintain the moral high ground and demonstrate the courage of our convictions. We must continue to fight for across the board equality, while putting in the work to position ourselves to take advantage of it once it's achieved. Nobody's GIVING us anything, so we need to suck it up, and roll up our sleeves. Most Black people understand that, but there is still a small minority of us who continue to believe in the Tooth Fairy. That's why they continue to sit on the curb as newly arrived immigrants come into the country and step over them. It's time for these people to wake up. All they're doing is giving our young people a convenient excuse for failure.
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As a direct result of our shortsightedness in establishing Affirmative Action, there are a lot of people who marched with, or supported, Martin Luther King who became staunch Republicans - and Richard Nixon, who signed off on much of Affirmative Action, knew exactly what was coming. He most probably had tongue in cheek as he signed off on it - "Okay, White folks, you want to march with Martin, let’s see how you feel after this." The bottom line is, we let him out-think us, and we've paid dearly for it for the past forty years. President Obama is not going to let that happen again.
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So the fact is, if you’re a Black Obama critic, the chances are overwhelming that it's because you don't understand his approach to governing, and that, in turn, is because Obama is much smarter than you. That’s undoubtedly why he’s president, and you’re not - do you hear me, Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and others? Now let’s take a look at some of the things that Obama has actually done, as oppose to basing our opinion on urban legends and nitpicking:

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Obama Accomplishments - With Documentation

Returned The Executive Branch To Fiscal Responsibility. Within his first week, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse. http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5
2. Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money. http://n.pr/hcgBn1
3. On his first full day, he froze White House salaries. http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx
4. He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending.http://www.cio.gov
5. He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems. To that end, he also signed the Democratic-sponsored Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, which attempted to put a stop to waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system. http://bit.ly/hOw1t1http://bit.ly/fz8GAd
6. Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. http://bit.ly/hwKhKa
Prevented a Bush Depression and Improved the Economy7. Pushed through and signed the Democratic-sponsored American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as "the stimulus package." The bill passed, even though only three Republicans voted for it. In a major departure from the previous administration, he launched recovery.gov, a website that allows taxpayers to track spending from the Act. http://1.usa.gov/ibiFSshttp://1.usa.gov/e3BJMk
8. The Bush-led Great Recession was costing the economy nearly 800,000 jobs per month by the time President Obama took office. But by the end of his first year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created and sustained 2.1 million jobs and stimulated the economy by 3.5%. http://reut.rs/i46CEE
9. Not only did he completed the massive TARP financial and banking rescue plan, he also leaned on the banks and others, and recovered virtually all of the bail-out money. http://1.usa.gov/eA5jVS
10. He created the Making Home Affordable home refinancing plan. http://1.usa.gov/goy6zl
11. Oversaw the creation of more jobs in 2010 alone than Bush did in eight years. http://bit.ly/hrrnjY
12. Along with Democrats, and almost no Republicans, implemented an auto industry rescue plan, and saved as many as 1 million jobs. http://bit.ly/ibhpxr Many are of the opinion that he saved the entire auto industry, and even the economy of the entire Midwest. http://bit.ly/gj7mt5 This resulted in GM returning to its place as the top car company in the world. http://lat.ms/zIJuQx
13. Doubled funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which is designed to improve manufacturing efficiency. http://bit.ly/eYD4nf
14. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act giving the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud in every corner of the financial system, and create a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial fraud that led to the economic meltdown. http://abcn.ws/g18Fe7
15. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which was designed to to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive credit card practices. http://1.usa.gov/gIaNcS
16. Increased infrastructure spending after years of neglect. http://bit.ly/f77aOw
17. Signed the Democratic-sponsored and passed Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures. The bill also provided $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness, and to stabilize the housing market. http://bit.ly/eEpLFn
18. Through the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, he and Congressional Democrats provided tax credits to first-time home buyers, which helped the U.S. housing market recovery. http://bit.ly/dZgXXwa99 http://bit.ly/gORYfL
19. Initiated a $15 billion plan designed to encourage increased lending to small businesses. http://1.usa.gov/eu0u0b
20. Created business.gov, which allows for online collaboration between small businesses and experts re managing a business. (The program has since merged with SBA.gov.) http://www.business.gov
21. Played a lead role in getting the G-20 Summit to commit to a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. http://nyti.ms/gHlgp5
22. Took steps to improve minority access to capital. http://bit.ly/f9xVE723. Signed an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to review all federal regulations and remove any unnecessary and/or burdensome regulations from the books. http://1.usa.gov/Lpo5bd
24. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, saved at least 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors that would have otherwise been lost. http://1.usa.gov/ez30D
25. Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, thereby cutting ties between energy companies and the government. http://nyti.ms/bw1MLu
26. Along with Congressional Democrats, provided funding to states and the Department of Homeland Security to save thousands of police and firefighter jobs from being cut during the recession. http://bit.ly/g0IKWR
27. Used recovered TARP money to fund programs at local housing finance agencies in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. http://on.msnbc.com/i1i8eV
28. Crafted and signed an executive order establishing the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. http://bit.ly/eyqsNE
29. China’s largest manufacturer, Foxconn, is building a large plant in Pennsylvania http://cnnmon.ie/1k7LT4S
30. Worked with Apple Computer to get them to build more product here, and thecompany is building two large plants to manufacture products here; one in Texas http://zd.net/1nkpt2O and one in Arizona http://bit.ly/1mXY5Vg
31. Oversaw increase of manufacturing jobs by more than 500,000 since 2010, and created an institute to invest in more manufacturing jobs in the technology fields of the future. http://nyti.ms/1egyXrV
32. Ordering all federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour, leading the way to a national increase. http://wapo.st/1iaU5kd
Brought Much-Improved Transparency and Better Government
33. Signed an order banning gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the Executive Branch. http://bit.ly/fsBACN
34. Signed an order banning anyone from working in an agency they had lobbied in previous years, and put strict limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House. http://nyti.ms/gOrznV
35. Held the first-ever first online town hall from the White House, and took questions from the public. http://bit.ly/gVNSgX
36. Became the first to stream every White House event, live. http://1.usa.gov/kAgOP5
37. Established a central portal for Americans to find service opportunities. http://www.serve.gov
38. Provided the first voluntary disclosure of the White House Visitors Log in history. http://1.usa.gov/hQ7ttV
39. Issued an Executive Order on Presidential Records, which restored the 30-day time frame for former presidents to review records, and eliminated the right for the vice president or family members of former presidents to do the reviews. Provides the public with greater access to historic White House documents, and severely curtails the ability to use executive privilege to shield them. http://1.usa.gov/gUetLb
40. Improved aspects of the Freedom of Information Act, and issued new guidelines to make FOIA more open and transparent when processing FOIA requests. http://1.usa.gov/gjrnp2
Wall Street Reforms and Consumer Protection41. Ordered 65 executives who took bailout money to cut their own pay until they paid back all bailout money. http://huff.to/eAi9Qq
42. Along with Congressional Democrats, pushed through and got passed Dodd-Frank, one of the largest and most comprehensive Wall Street reforms since the Great Depression. http://bit.ly/hWCPg0http://bit.ly/geHpcD
43. Through Dodd-Frank legislation, created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau http://1.usa.gov/j5onG
44. Through Dodd-Frank, the Executive Branch fashioned rules that reduce the influence of speculators in the oil market. http://bit.ly/MDnA1t
45. Fashioned rules so that banks can no longer use YOUR money to invest in high-risk financial instruments that work against their own customers’ interests. http://bit.ly/fnTayj
46. Supported the concept of allowing stockholders to vote on executive compensation. http://bit.ly/fnTayj
47. Endorsed and supported the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 that would close offshore tax avoidance loopholes. http://bit.ly/esOdfBhttp://bit.ly/eG4DPM
48. Negotiated a deal with Swiss banks that now permits the US government to gain access to the records of criminals and tax evaders. http://bit.ly/htfDgw
49. Signed the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which closed many of the loopholes that allowed companies to send jobs overseas, and avoid paying US taxes by moving money offshore. http://1.usa.gov/bd1RTq
50. Established a Consumer Protection Financial Bureau designed to protect consumers from financial sector excesses. http://bit.ly/fnTayj
51. Oversaw and then signed a Democratic bill constituting the most sweeping food safety legislation since the Great Depression. http://thedc.com/gxkCtP
52. Through the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, extended the False Claims Act to combat fraud by companies and individuals using money from the TARP and Stimulus programs. http://bit.ly/SLTcSa———————–

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

AND THE IRONY IS, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANS - TO HELL WITH AMERICA. THIS IS ABOUT ME AND MY WOUNDED EGO.

At a Chicago Teacher’s Union event to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that while the civil rights leader proclaimed “I have a dream,” Obama says...“I have a drone.” A very witty quip coming from the good reverend, but I’m curious, why don’t these haters ever seem to have anything negative to say about the GOP? It’s very curious, very curious indeed.

.President Obama is charged with the responsibility of preventing Al Qaeda and other terrorist from getting their hands on Pakistan's nuclear weapons - which, by the way, are essentially right around the corner from where they located Osama Bin Laden. So what would the good reverend have the president do, back-off and pray that the Lord protect us from a nuclear attack?.In addition, drones actually SAVE many lives during a war, because with drones we have the option of waiting until the target's family is away from the targeted area, as oppose to simply lobbing missiles into a location blindly. So people like Wright, Tavis Smiley, and Cornel West don't know what they're talking about - and actually, they really don't care. They don't care how many people are being killed in Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world, and that includes our inner cities right here in America. If they did, instead of running around the country selling books, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and chasing photo-ops, they'd be in the trenches of the inner cities with their sleeves rolled up, and trying to educate our young people.

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All these people want is an issue - ANY issue - that they can use to criticize President Obama. But it is incumbent upon the Black community to explore exactly WHY these people are so hostile toward our first Black president, because it's a serious dysfunction in the Black community that plays a major role in our failure to move forward as a people. .As I've said many times before, I think it's a simple matter of 'bligotry' - (Black-on-Black bigotry). Black people are a product of the very same racist society as White people, so many weaker-minded, and egomaniacal Black people are just as bigoted toward other Blacks as any racist Hillbilly. They tend to suffer from one of two modes of thinking. Conservative Bligot:"Things wouldn't be so hard on me if it weren't for the rest of these ignorant niggas."Liberal Bligot:"Just because that nigga lied his way into the White House, he thinks he's better than me.".By and large, Black people are reluctant to accept simple bigotry as an explanation for the behavior of virulent Black Obama haters, because we are reluctant to except the fact that even the most stupid Black individual has more sense than to be bigoted toward his or her own people, but the evidence clearly demonstrates that the dysfunction is pervasive throughout our community. What do you think is responsible for the carnage and loss needless loss of life in our inner cities? The reason for that is clear - our young people don't value Black life, and they got that attitude from us. When was the last time you either saw, or heard, of someone perpetrating a drive-by while wearing a sheet? You won't, because there's no longer any need for a Klan, because we're much more efficient than they could ever be in carrying out their work for them.

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We're the only ones who don't recognize this phenomenon. The corporations and business community uses bligotry against us all of the time. I was a union rep and an EEOC specialist for twelve years. That's how I began to recognize what was going on. I'd be willing to bet that over 95% of Black workers have been either the victims of bligotry, or have seen it in action on their jobs..Businesses and corporations across this country will routinely elevate a carefully selected group of Black people into middle management for no other reason than to abuse and discriminate against their other Black employees - the United States Postal Service is notorious for the tactic. The reason for the tactic is because it insulates the corporation from lawsuits. It is next to impossible to file a successful discrimination suit against a corporation for the behavior of one of their managers against a worker of the same race..So again, bligotry is pervasive throughout the Black community, and it's being used to great effect to undermine Black progress. And Black-on-Black hatred is exactly what's at work in the vitriol being hurled at President Obama, and the Black community needs to put these bligots on notice, because they're causing division, and that undermines everything that the president is trying to do for the Black community.

.That's what makes it so disgusting. The behavior of these haters is not just an ignorant, petty, and self-serving mode of thinking, but the people who indulge in it are more than prepared to undermine the entire community to nurture it. That's why all you hear such people talking about is how incompetent or disloyal Obama is. And that's in spite of the total irony that they tend to give the Republican Party a complete pass - a group that's on a determined and single-minded mission to drag not only the Black community, but ALL poor and middle class Americans, PASSED the Jim Crow era, to the kind of existence that predates the Great Depression. How can you claim to love your people and do that? The fact is, you can't. The haters' mere claim that they love their people is irreconcilable with their behavior.

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We've already discussed inner city violence, but now consider the ridiculous criticism by the haters' that President Obama's not doing enough to prevent the death and carnage in our inner cities. The fact is, there is absolutely nothing that President Obama can do to keep one young person from killing another. The only thing that's going to stop that is education - and not an institutional education that they can get from a book, but a cultural education in common sense, a love for self, and a love for community. President Obama can't give them that. WE have to give them that. There are some things that even a President can't do, and legislating common sense is at the very top of that list. Only we can educate our children.

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So now that it's clear that many of these Obama critics are nothing more than walking criticisms looking for an issue (many of them didn't even latch on to drone issue until their poverty bus broke down), let's return to foreign policy. People like the good Rev. Wright and others have absolutely no idea what kind of information President Obama is getting across his desk in his condition reports every morning. So the mere fact that they continue to blindly shoot off their mouths regarding the president's actions, without having any idea of what he's is responding to, is clear evidence that all three of the men mentioned above, along with their supporters, are prone to shoot from the hip without knowing what they are talking about..

Thus, the bottom line is, while these Obama haters would have us believe that Obama is in Afghanistan just killing women and children for the hell of it, or for the benefit of the oil companies, that’s a myth. He’s trying to make sure that YOUR family is not blown up by angry religious fanatics who think that God will bless them if they blow up the United States.

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We must constantly keep in mind that while war, and the killing attendant to war, is an ugly business, it is very much a reality in the world we live in. So again, if we have to lob missiles into an area filled with innocent people - since hiding behind human shields seems to be the terrorist's preferred mode of defense - the drone is a far better alternative than just blindly firing missiles into a location filled with women and children.

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So that said, and documented, what’s going on with all of these Black haters? The Black community is going to have to start addressing this like it's a Black psychological dysfunction similar to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, because there’s clear evidence that this is Black-on-Black bigotry (“bligotry”). What evidence do I have of that? Cornel West said the following:

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"When you’re trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling get’s in the way. Name calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction." - Cornel West.

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So it's clear. Cornel West knows that he's being a nonproductive distraction. In addition, these Black haters never have anything positive to say about Obama, no matter what he does, and they never have anything at all to say about the people who are ACTUALLY trying to cut our throats - the GOP. Think about it.

Society Of Professional Journalists

Eric L. Wattree

Strive To Become Your Own Hero... Then Let No One Remove Your Cape.

BIO

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s been a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and is a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/). He’s also the author of "A Message From the Hood."Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.Eric L. Wattreehttp://www.whohub.com/wattree

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Am I a hater, you ask? You're damn right I'm a hater. I hate injustice. I hate hypocrisy. I also hate demagoguery, apathy, and the stupidity that allows it to exist. Hater? Absolutely. I'm a big time hater. I hate what I see happening to this country, and I hate watching the development of a culture that embraces ignorance with a stupid sense of pride. So yes, I am indeed a hater, but not only that - I'm a hater with a very low threshold for bullshit, so step off.